I'm Kalina, a '27 from Sofia, Bulgaria. I love books (I love reading and writing them), and I particularly love fantasy (i.e., I'm an expert on Middle Earth and Hogwarts studies). I'm fascinated by the human brain and the real-world magic of science. I also love hiking, bird-watching, climbing, and em dashes.
Instead of taking a normal Writing 5 course, I decided to fulfill my first-year writing requirement by taking HUM 1. This course helped me strengthen my relationship to literature and writing. It changed the way in which I thought about classics, both books and movies (we saw Wall-E, by the way). And it also changed the way I thought about academic writing and literary criticism. A third of the course was made up of lectures by professors from different departments, while the other two thirds were discussions with a single professor and a small group of 15 students.
Intro to Neuroscience was the first course I was truly excited about. It wasn't an easy course; we had a weekly quiz of ten to thirteen questions covering the lectures from the past few days, but it was very interesting and also very funny (Professor Winter's humor is legendary). We learned about the human brain at the level of individual cells. We also studied it at the level of different systems, from the olfactory system to the parasympathetic nervous system. And last, we learned about cognition: learning, attention, language. We saw a real human brain with formaldehyde dripping from it. We saw a real sheep's brain. And a rat's brain. And we pocked each other with paper clips to determine the sensitivity of our touch receptors.
Journalism with Professor Alexis Jetter was an enjoyable class, sometimes challenging but very satisfying. We covered a lot of US history through the lens of the media, and we started every class with a discussion of the current news and events (thanks to these discussions, I feel like a real adult now—not so lost when the conversation turns toward politics). Several guest lecturers—from former students of Professor Jetter who're now journalists to a New York Times war correspondent—brought us real stories from the field. In the middle of the term, each of us had to find someone over 30 years old in the Upper Valley, spend a day with them, and write a profile.
SummerSofia, Bulgaria
I'm spending my first summer back home, helping my family care for my newborn sister. In my free time (changing diapers takes a lot of time!), I'm doing research for the cognitive neuroscience lab FINN Lab, preparing for my classes in the fall, and working on a new book.
Computational Neuroscience with Professor Richard Granger is a multidisciplinary course taught by a multidisciplinary professor and designed for multidisciplinary thinkers. The class covered brain anatomy and physiology and the biology of learning; it covered linear algebra and the architectures and characteristics of several neural networks. Last, we had a module on "brain engineering"—how some brain circuits function and how we can get inspired by them as engineers.
The first focus of Discrete Math for Computer Science was learning to think like a mathematician: how do we use logic to find proofs to problems and our solutions? Next, we learned how to apply this thinking in computer science contexts — how do you prove that a recursive program works? How do you prove what its run-time is going to be? These were the kind of skills we were building in preparation for the next course in the theoretical computer science sequence: Algorithms. Before we can build algorithms, we need to know how to think about the steps we need to take to solve problems with the rigor of mathematical logic.
Last term, I rushed the gender-inclusive Greek house Alpha Theta, and I got a bid, and now I'm a member of the house. This term I also live in Alpha Theta, in a single room on the second floor, with a window looking north at Moore Hall (the building home to the Psychological and Brain Sciences department, where I have my first class for the day every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). The house is located at the north end of campus, really close to Occom Pond andPine Park.
My home for this term: Alpha Theta
I decided to move from my dormTopliff (part of South Househousing community) to Alpha Theta (which is still considered living on campus) primarily because I can spend much more time with my friends. Right next door live my close friends Arp and Sonny; whenever I feel too bored or I need help deciding which boots go well with my dress, I just cross the three feet of hallway that separate us and knock on Arp and Sonny's door [and then I'm either treated to a chair occupied by a stuffed fluffy shark or I'm given a new pair of shoes (Sonny's) to try on with my dress].
That's where I sleep :) See the two coffee tables to the right?
My room in Alpha Theta–Trophy Room (because there are a bunch of trophies in it)–is equipped with two mirrors, one fridge, one desk, one bed, a tall bookcase, a set of drawers and cloth hangers, and, for some unknown reason, THREE coffee tables. I keep two of them stacked on top of each other behind the wall, to the right. I just really don't know what else to do with so many coffee tables.
Living in a house, as opposed to a dorm, also feels way more homey… We have a living room with a bunch of couches and a big TV. There's a second living room with a piano (that's so out of tune you could say it has its own perfected tune) and a pool table. There's a library with yet more couches and tens of tea boxes. And of course there's a kitchen, a laundry room, and a set of pong tables in the basement.
This is the library, one of my favorite rooms in the house.
The whole house is kept clean and organized by the students who live in it. My weekly chore is to clean the living room (that's why you can find me vacuuming every Sunday morning). Other house members' weekly chores include cleaning the kitchen, or the library, or shoveling snow even.
This is Charlie the cat, who also attends house meetings sometimes.
So far I love living in Alpha Theta—it means I have a space of my own that I take care of and share with people I love spending time with.
I've never felt the saying, "Time flies" more strongly than now. How am I already halfway through my Dartmouth career? This winter marks the end of my 6th out of my total 12 terms, the halfway point of my Dartmouth journey.
